The Dog Roses

"You have no weapons, striapach."

"I am the weapon, tuil."

It is 400 B.C. The mist clears and three triremes glide into the calm waters of the bay in Southern riu. On a grass-topped dune, a young girl dances gleefully at the Goddess's gift. Two warrior princesses, the twins Brighid and Danu, leap over the vessels' sides into the cold waters and look north towards their ancestral home. The clanging of steel from the fort of Rth Na Conall is not a good omen.

Seated on his throne in Caher Conri the depraved Uallachn rages at the sight of the red shield embellished with a swooping black raven and the memories it provokes. He swears vengeance on the daughters of his old adversary.

Draighean stands impervious to the deep cold and snows of the mountain peak. She bites maroon lips, unhappy at her sisters-the demi-goddesses of the Aes Sidhe. Yet does she have a choice? Evil must be fought.

Uallachn's idea of peace is to crush all dissent, but is he no more than a puppet of the powerful kings of the Connachta?

The twins know they must defeat the invasion and stop the enslavement of their people. Still, even with the help of the Sidhe, Draighean, the odds are daunting.